Hitmen above .500

By Aaron Dowding

January 12th, 2002

On Jan. 9th the Hitmen played their 43rd game of the season and squeezed over .500 totaling their record to 21-20-2.The Hitmen at home took an early 3-1 lead against the Saskatoon Blades after the first period.The teams exchanged a goal a piece in the second and two each in the third for a final score of 6-4.Calgary looked strong as they killed off a 5 on 3 power play in the first with goalie Sebastien LaPlante standing tall to be the team’s best penalty killer.Tyler Beechey riding a point streak added to it with a hat trick and two assists for a five-point night and a goal total of 28. Brandon Segal riding a nine game point streak tied Tyler Beechey with his 28th of the year.With this game Calgary has two wins at home vs. the Blades and are 4-0-0 against them this season.

There are many other things for Hitmen fans to look forward to as Johnny Boychuk heads to Saskatoon to represent Calgary in the CHL Home Hardware Top Prospects Game, which includes the top 40 draft prospects for the coming year.Also Tyler Beechey will be the only player from the Hitmen to see ice time in Red Deer for the Hershey Cup on Jan. 23.

Winning again.

The Hitmen raided the Prince Albert Raiders of a win on Jan. 11 winning at home 6-4.Beechey getting the hat trick on the 9th of January decided he would let Owen Fussey take over in front of 7136 fans at the Saddledome. Fussey claimed a hat trick of his own to push his total to 28 for the season.It wasn’t the nicest looking win as the Hitmen received 31 shots on goal with Sebastien LaPlante minding the twine with Brent Krahn still out. The Hitmen however responded with 42 shots and victory.

Possibly the play of the game was young Ryan Getzlaf breaking out and beating goaltender Aaron Sorochan to tie the game 2-2 shorthanded in the second period.The game was the third meeting for these teams each taking a game in the previous two. The final game of the season for these two is in Prince Albert on Feb. 22.